CINCINNATI — Trevor Lawrence had been here before.
A tight game against Cincinnati. The Jaguars had a chance to finish it. Eventually, the Bengals walked away with the win.
Three previous meetings had ended that way for Jacksonville and Lawrence. Sunday finally didn't.
The Jaguars quarterback wasn't perfect, and the team certainly wasn't sharp throughout the entire game.
But for the last three meetings, the Jaguars walked away with what could have been. Lawrence finally walked out with what has eluded him against Cincinnati: a win.
"You look at all the different games we've played and they've all went about like today went," Lawrence said after the game Sunday. "Except
we were on the other end of it."
The Jaguars defeated the Bengals 22-17 in yet another contest that came down to the last play or series.
The Jaguars weren't sharp offensively Sunday, but they kept finding answers. Penalties knocked them off schedule, Lawrence missed throws he'd like back and no one player carried the offense from start to finish.
Instead, Jacksonville leaned on different pieces at different moments — the running game, tight end Brenton Strange, Brian Thomas Jr. — offering perhaps the cleanest look yet at what the Jaguars want around Lawrence: an offense that can survive mistakes and take what the game gives it.
"There's only one football," Lawrence said.
Trevor Lawrence, Jaguars find a way through the mistakes
The Jaguars weren't perfect on Sunday.
"It's wild. I've never been a part of anything like that before in my life," Jaguars head coach Liam Coen said when asked about the flow of the game being disrupted by penalties on Sunday.
"I'm not going to say anything that will get me fined. But that was just mental. I've never seen quite that much in the first half of the game."
Jacksonville was called for 10 first-half penalties for 100 yards. They finished with 13 penalties for 125 yards, while the Bengals were penalized 11 times for 108 yards. Neither team could get into a proper flow.
Like Lawrence, Coen felt this Sunday's game unfolded much like it did last year. This time, though, they overcame any adversity.
"Win a game of inches. I'm proud of the growth, proud of the group and [them] sticking with it. Overcoming a lot of bad stuff, self-inflicted wounds that felt a little bit like last year's," Coen explained.
Lawrence completed 18 of 23 passes (78.2%) for 227 yards and a touchdown. While he completed nearly all his passes, the one he missed to Strange stood out.
"I was kicking myself after that one," Lawrence said.
Strange was running free with nothing but green grass in front of him, which would have put the team up 22-10 with about 13 minutes left in the ballgame. Instead, Lawrence missed him wildly, something he hasn't been wont to do this year.
On Jacksonville's ensuing possession, though, the team more than made up for it with running back Chris Rodriguez running it in for a touchdown from 25 yards out.
"Just guys having each other's back, being able to make the next play and not letting one play that didn't go our way kill the drive," Lawrence said. "So, really glad the guys had our backs and were able to make a play. It was awesome."
Jacksonville's identity centered on staying the course on Sunday, and it paid dividends for numerous players, including one who has faced adversity in recent weeks.
Brian Thomas Jr. stays the course, comes down with big touchdown snag
Over the first three weeks of the season, Thomas has come under scrutiny for his production (or lack thereof) and how much his involvement matters to the Jaguars' offense.
Last week against the New England Patriots, Thomas played just 23 snaps, tying rookie wideout Josh Cameron. This week, Thomas caught just two passes, one for a touchdown, to give Jacksonville a 13-3 lead entering halftime.
Coen continued to dispel the narrative in the postgame.
"Everyone is going to try and create a narrative," Coen said.
"Maybe it isn't a star day for everybody, and everybody is going to try and create a narrative, but we've always been consistent in our messaging to BT, to everybody else, to this locker room, and all he can do is stay the course. He showed up in a major way for us today."
Lawrence didn't hold back in his defense of Thomas, either.
"That's not something we think about at all. That guy comes to work every day. We continue to work. I think he's been awesome. Obviously, every game, every year, there are plays everybody wants back," said Lawrence, referencing drops Thomas has made in the past.
"I think, for whatever reason, that's been a big topic of conversation, and I've got so much faith in that guy. He comes to work, and I'm happy to see him score. I know there's so much still that he brings to the table that we have got to bring out of him. As quarterback, that's my job and our job as an offense, getting him involved, and there are so many things that he can do."
The team's star through three weeks, Parker Washington, had just one catch on three targets Sunday for seven yards. The Bengals took him out of the game, but Jacksonville still found a way to get it done.
"That's why you have other good players, that's why you have other guys who make plays and I'm sure he will get plenty of them next week," Coen said.
Much like Washington, Thomas doesn't have to dominate a game for the team to win. Different players matter at different moments, Lawrence said. Sunday was Strange's most productive day this season with seven catches for 95 yards.
"That's our offense. It's not everyone's day every Sunday. That's the hard part. There's only one football, and our guys show that they're ready," said Lawrence.
"... The ball finds who's open and what the defense kind of dictates. I think that's a good thing about our guys; they're not selfish, they're pretty selfless with how they approach the game plan and the week."
Lawrence's responsibility is to distribute the football and identify a matchup. It's not to force a ball to satisfy usage expectations.
That's Jacksonville's offense in a nutshell.
The Jaguars finished with 27 rushing attempts for 111 yards and a TD. It kept Cincinnati off balance on key drives, leading to points on multiple occasions. The team's tight end was the top target and receiver. No other player had more than four.
That's Jacksonville's offense. And, at the same time, they understand it needs to be better. The offense didn't finish the game on their own terms.
"That’s something we look at too, where we have got to be better and be able to put them away without giving them the ball back with all that time," Lawrence reflected.
The Jaguars are trying to become cleaner and more decisive on offense, but it's clear they've found a winning formula as they enter a two-week stint in London.
This time, unlike the previous Bengals meetings, finding answers was enough.
Demetrius Harvey is the Jacksonville Jaguars reporter for the Florida Times-Union. You can follow him on X (formerly Twitter) at @Demetrius82 or on BlueskyatDemetrius.
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This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Trevor Lawrence finds answers as Jaguars flip script on Bengals
